Category: Courage

America First is America Alone

We are desensitized to killing. Leadership no longer recognizes nor respects international law or the norms of human decency. The United States / Israeli partnership continues the genocide of Palestinians. Turning our backs on this slaughter has empowered it. We have forsaken the independence of Ukraine and the slaughter in Sudan. The United States Christmas bombing in Nigeria was useless propaganda that harmed innocent civilians. We’re still unclear about the nearly one hundred sailors and fishermen blown up in the Caribbean. And as we learn of eighty civilians and soldiers and thirty-two Cubans killed by our bombs in Venezuela, we are distracted by the desire to take over Greenland. No time to mourn. Threats of militarization and regime change have been made regarding Mexico, Iran, Columbia, Cuba and continue in Venezuela. 

America first is now America alone. Might is right has replaced our humanity. And who will stop the United States military, led by ruthless capitalists stealing land and oil and protecting their ultra rich crony pedophiles? 

A senseless murder in Minneapolis at the hands of ICE brings the ruthlessness back home. The lies and propaganda still work on a handful, but the streets are and will continue to be lined with human beings saying “No More”. No more disappearing our neighbors and friends. No more theft of our souls.

Project 2025, the authoritarian playbook disguised as a manual for the creation of a Christian nation, is afoot, and the ignorant are all for it.

If you’re still supporting this madness, it’s doubtful these words will touch you. I write for those who see the calamity before us and to encourage the silent fringe to wake up, that we may remove the bullies we have empowered and allow the possibility of peace to reign.

Reclaiming our humanity with courage and dignity will stop this death march.  

In our human belonging, we are never alone.

Vigil for Renee Good, brutally murdered by ICE in Minneapolis, 1/7/26

Warriors of Love

Take time for the stillness in your heart. As we emerge from a year of brutal cruelty, we must take stock of our strengths. This battle is not over. Our humanity is not lost. We have been silent for too long, complicit with a status quo that never cherished our individuality, never championed our gifts. This is a time to draw upon the wisdom born of compassion and empathy. It’s not a time to cower in fear. This is our moment to rediscover the gratitude for the life we have been given; and to hone the courage needed to repel the ignorance devouring us. 

Doubt is not our friend. As we engage in a world corrupted by greed and poisoned with artificial truths, we must shake off indifference. We must become Warriors of Love. 

In honor of those who came before us, with all of their hopes and dreams for our better world and for those who will come after us, we must fight. 

Fight using the weapons we already hold: clarity, discernment, choice. History has repeated itself, because we have allowed it. But in that history, there has been a singular vision that has triumphed again and again. That vision is the possibility of peace. Not a ‘pie in the sky’ peace. It is a fundamental part of who we are and have always been. More of us are needed to cherish and cultivate it.

The ignorant laugh, but in truth the external power used to curtail us is nothing compared to what we carry – when we choose to deploy. 

Deploy love and kindness. Help one another. We’ve got this. 

WELCOME 2026!

Watch You Are In Charge – with the encouraging words of Prem Rawat

What Matters Most

The house of cards is crumbling. And for many, the overwhelm is taking its toll. We’re being forced to admit that our racist and murderous history is not simply in our past, but is and has been ever present. We have a choice. Those who cheered on this grotesque turn, are either in continued support of it, or are in full blown regret. Some are paralyzed by the fear of what we’re witnessing and now reckon with their participation in creating it.

Those who rejected and continue to resist the ICE raids on families, the disappearance of children, the murder of fisherman and the dismantling of our government’s checks and balances also have choices. Paralysis is not a choice. It’s capitulation. We can give up, assuming it’s too late and too hard to change – or we can continue to resist.  

And this is the tricky part; how do we resist? 

Knowing what matters most to us as individuals and collectively is our way out. Respecting ourselves and each other, caring for and listening to each other and acting with the confidence of people who know that the power we inherently carry will triumph. 

The sun always dispels darkness. We have power that we have yet to tap. Not the power of conquistadors, but the power of seeds yet to be planted and harvested. We have all allowed this ignorance to reign and now it is our time to choose differently. We can discover and nurture our strengths. There’s great power in resilience, in clarity, in the ability to circumvent doubt. There is worthy power in aligning with compassion and empathy. And there are powers no one will ever dominate: our ability to love and to feel gratitude. These are the seeds of our becoming.

Nurture what matters most. 

The Evin Prisons Bakers’ Club, Surviving Iran’s Most Notorious Prisons in 16 Recipes by Sepideh Gholian is a hard hitting look at the life of women political prisoners in Iran – their courage, sorrows, joys and triumphs told by one who has survived and thrives.

This Changing the Narrative podcast is translated by Fatemeh Jamalpour. Reading the book and engaging in this conversation with Sepideh has deepened my humanity and encouraged my resistance. Take time with this. 

The Evin Prisons Baker’s Club with author Sepideh Gholian

Dismantling the Master’s House

When Audre Lorde wrote, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” the door opened again to the dismantling of the systems that oppress us – if we let them.

And just what is the master’s house? The patriarchy that continues to subjugate women the world over are the pillars. In the walls are hidden the abuse of women and children and the inhumane secrets of generations. The floors are made of capitalism dependent on extreme extractions of the earth and of human blood, sweat and tears.  And religions, that abandon simple truths in order to align with power, are the roof of the master’s house. The master’s house is a tight little package that we have accepted and we continue to support – until we don’t.

And what are the tools that we should not use to dismantle this prison? The lies of scarcity, that there is not enough; that life is about ‘dog eat dog’ and ‘might is right’. That heaven can only be found in dying and life is about sacrifice and pain and that we are separate from one another and all Creation.  These are the tools the master has used to build his house. 

What then are the tools to dismantle this prison? Knowing who you are is key. Recognizing the preciousness of life and the connection we all carry to our Creator and to one another sweeten the effort of dismantling. Love and compassion are our strengths. Courage and clarity are essential. And the hope that is born on this effort is never forsaken. It carries on.

“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free”. Let us join the host of human beings who have traversed this course. Enough of inhumanity. It’s time we depart the master’s prison and bring the willing home. 

For inspiration, courage and clarity:

Fannie Lou Hamer – “Until I am Free You are Not Free Either”

Angelou “No One of Us is Free until Everybody’s Free“

There Are More of Us

While I was handing out “No Transmission Corridor” flyers, I learned again the adage, ‘There are more of us’. The majority of folks didn’t know about Dairyland’s proposal to bring what would be the highest transmission line in Wisconsin through the Driftless, but they were glad to find out, and thanked me for letting them know.

There were a few who didn’t care, but they learned something that will hopefully be nagging at them as they drive through our precious landscapes. And of course there were the very, very few who weren’t opposed to it – not for it, but not opposed to it. They’re the ones who don’t court independent thinking and are content not rocking the boat. But nonetheless, there it was again – that sweet knowing that we are the majority. 

We, the ones who care, the ones just waiting for that precious piece of knowledge and inclusion that allows us to stand for something. The ones who are still capable of feeling dignity and who love the earth unquestioningly. 

Corporate media has done a great job keeping us placated and ignorant. We’ve been fed lies about what is necessary and what is progress for decades. We’ve been told what is inevitable and have lost our clarity and our voice in the process. 

But now as we witness lies exposed, as we learn of neighbors viciously stripped from families and communities, as we see the extend the powerful will go to hide the grooming and raping of children, and as our earth is rocked by extraction, we are also witness to the rise of this: There are more of us. And I say bring it on.

Use time wisely. Look for people who want to know. Let’s widen the circle of our humanity with those who are waiting to be invited.

AND IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

“Another packed night, with probably over 600 people coming out in Charlotte, NC to be trained to join the safety patrols who are fanning out across the city each day to make sure that everyone can get to work and school safely… and home again at night. 
Every night, hundreds more people come out to find out how to plug in. 
And while CBP and ICE expanded their operations to other cities, so did we.” – Gwen Frisbie – Fulton

Read about the COP30 Climate Summit with over 1,000 Indigenous people registered for the event and their impact.

Survivors speak out in this video: World Without Exploitation. Bring abuse out of the shadows.

And learn more how to protect the Driftless:

Choose to Defiantly Live

I watched a fly caught in a web. It was very much alive, but as it squirmed the tighter the web grew. It was easy to see its black body against the white ceiling. Then I could see the thin frame of a spider making its way to the captive. The fly became even more frantic spiraling and spinning wildly. Impressed at its willingness not to die, I wondered if I should give aid. And then another spider began to move in. Recognizing its determination to live, I attempted to free the fly, but it was out of reach. As the two approaching spiders neared their prey, the fly broke free and catapulted down. I couldn’t see where it landed, and I am pretty sure it would be difficult to unweave the binding web. But I cheered for the sheer gumption displayed and the determination I witnessed. And then I realized I appreciated this defiant will to live because it is within me, within all of us. 

Some of us die in increments, leaving bits of ourselves to decay in full view and forsaking the gift of life to the torments of living. We admire the courage to live in others, but do we ever acknowledge this will, this strength in ourselves? Do we accept this gift of will, or do we squander it?

Some of us die by compromise. Piece by piece we give ourselves away, never knowing the preciousness of the time we are given.  Never accepting the power of our uniqueness. Never truly living.

We carry seeds of hope, clarity, courage and humanity necessary to the whole of us. If only we would choose to defiantly live and escape the bondages that hold us. 

Accept the power of being alive. There is freedom in that. 

photo Dewy spider web: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en